Platonic Physics
by Abydosorphan
Summary: Pairing: Radek Zelenka/ Jeannie Miller Three Things You Want To See: Embarrassing Childhood stories, Particle Physics, saving the universe or maybe just the city Three Things You Do NOT Want To See: Angst, character death
Jeannie leaned over Radek's shoulder, reading the script that flew across the computer screen. "It's never going to work."

"You're just like your brother. You don't know that." Radek read the figures again and tried to ignore the woman who was leaning a little too close for his comfort. What was it with the McKays? "Nuclear fission had these proofs written in 1939, by Hans Bethe."

Jeannie rolled her eyes. "The current power supply that Atlantis is running is a bit different in practice than elemental transmutation, _that_ much we do know. And the fact that Lise Meitner was much more involved in those proofs, through her work with Otto Hahn. An involvement that, I might add, _should_ have gotten her the Nobel Prize and still has her listed as one of the most glaring examples of the chauvinism of the scientific community of that time."

Radek watched the way her irises contracted to tiny pin-points, her cheeks became slightly flushed and her words became taut. She was actually quite attractive when she was feisty, something that he wasn't accustomed to associating with a 'McKay'.

"Dr. Meitner's contribution to modern physics has been widely accepted for years. Even Albert Einstein highly respected her and was quoted as referring to her as the Marie Curie of Particle Physics."

Jeannie breathed a deep sigh and he saw her stance relax a bit. "I'm sorry, Radek. I've had to defend most of my scientific idols from Meredith's scrutiny for most of my life. He loved to tease me. The worst was when he had me burst into tears in grade school because we'd just found out that Edith Quimby had died."

Radek would not have been surprised to learn that the Rodney McKay that he knew would be responsible for something of that nature. The thought that a fourteen year old version of his coworker would be so callous to his younger sister almost took him by surprise. That was, until he thought about what most teenagers were like, and that was without the vast majority of the knowledge of a person that a sibling would possess. Growing up with that must have been horrible.

"Špinavého blbec."

Jeannie's hand tensed against the back of his chair as she turned away from the monitor to look at him. "I'm sorry?"

Radek was surprised that she had even noticed his utterance. Rodney certainly never did. Was it possible that one of them was adopted? He was tempted to ask, but he somehow knew that if it was possible, it would be an open source of contention for one party, and a closely guarded secret for the other. "It's a Czech expression. There isn't really a clear-cut translation, similar to calling McKay an idiot."

Jeannie smiled and her hand patted Radek on the shoulder as she replied, "Well, yes, if there is one thing that my 'brilliant' brother is an expert at, it's showing where his book smarts stops and his total idiocy takes over. Mere was always good at playing the jerk of an older brother, which only pissed him off more when I would kick his ass."

Radek huffed out a small laugh. "Now that is something I would very much like to see."

Something behind the way Jeannie was staring at him changed. He couldn't pinpoint it, but something was different. She almost seemed to be sizing him up and it was a little disconcerting to notice the way her eyes crinkled in the same way that Rodney's did when he was examining his latest challenge. "We've grown up a lot since then."

"Well, _you_ have." Even to his own ears the retort did not come out sounding the way he'd wanted it to. He'd meant for it to be nice and complimentary, instead it just sounded _dirty_. "Oh, doprdele."

Jeannie laughed, gently pushing herself off of Radek's chair and moving to one of the computer consoles across the room. "What if we tweaked the calculations a bit? Didn't Colonel Carter theorize that the power supply in the ZedPM was similar to a micro-fission reactor?"

He was still caught on his tone during their previous exchange; it was reminiscent of a conversation he'd had as a teenager with one of his friends' older sisters. She'd been a university student and had found his interest 'cute' and 'fascinating' and he'd wound up completely embarrassed and humiliated by it. He would have hoped one could grow out of that sort of behavior. "Actually, I believe the Colonel revised that hypothesis to indicate that the ZPM was actually a micro-fission-fusion reaction."

"Interesting theory." Jeannie pulled out the pencil that had been stuck in her hair and tapped it absently against the side of her cheek. "How did she think the Asurans were able to keep the reaction contained within the crystals? And did she say how she thought they were able to keep the reaction from becoming unstable? Or how they kept it sustained for such a long period of time?"

Radek stared after Jeannie as she seemed to drift into her own little world, her eyes gaining a slight glaze as she stared at the monitor and asked question after question. He wondered how often she would get caught up in something so completely and if she always looked so angelic when she did.

"I believe that she suspects that the reaction would feed itself, essentially; continually occurring until all of the materials are completely depleted. As to how the reaction remains contained and stable, I'm not sure that she has expressed those ideas, though I'm sure she has them. What does that have to do with this, though?"

"Radek, I'm surprised at you. Rodney, I would expect a question like that from, not you. It's always better to know more about how a system is designed to work before you try to tinker with it to get it to work better. If we're going to devise a way to keep the power levels optimal for all essential systems for an unlimited amount of time, we'll need to know a bit more than we do for certain right now about how it was designed to function."

She did have a point. It made complete logical sense. And it was a rationale of thought that Radek was unused to hearing from her brother. It might have been because they all too often didn't have the luxury of knowing all of the details before they needed the solution – and it would very likely wind up being the same scenario this time – but it was a nice change of pace to have someone considering it.

"To be honest, I haven't read Colonel Carter's latest paper on the subject, if she's even finished it yet; you might have better luck trying to discuss it with her."

He watched as she nodded absentmindedly, and then brushed a hand over her face.

"Maybe you're right. I don't think I can stare at these figures anymore anyway. I'll be back in a bit, if that's okay with you?"

"Of course." He watched her go, thankful for the time to himself. It would give him the opportunity to focus on his work, rather than his current partner. He never thought he'd actually look forward to working with Rodney again, but when Jeannie was here with him, it was very hard to focus solely on his work.


End file.
